Industry Insights

The global medical plastic compounds market size was estimated at USD 53.32 billion in 2017. It is projected to expand at a CAGR of 5.2% over the forecast period. Growing awareness regarding health issues and subsequent changes in regulatory policies concerning plastics usage are anticipated to have a considerable impact on future growth trajectory. Increasing usage of sterilized and disposable devices and need for longer shelf-life of medical devices are expected to further drive the growth. Utilization of light weight and cost effective plastics and increasing use of prosthetics is anticipated to fuel the demand over the forecast period.

Polymers exhibit superior properties such as surface control, flexibility, strength, lightweight, rigidity, ease of fabrication, and ability to withstand long-term exposure to human body. Aging population is touted to drive demand for existing and new medical technologies in countries, such as China, India, Japan, and Thailand.

Prevalence of chronic diseases including heart diseases, diabetes, arthritis, and respiratory diseases; especially among aging population is expected to propel demand for medical devices, which in turn, is anticipated to create new avenues for market participants. Surging home healthcare industry, preference for self-medication coupled with booming medical tourism is expected to have a positive influence on the growth of the market in near future.

Crude oil prices have been witnessing significant fluctuations over the recent years. Political instability in major crude oil producing countries, such as Iraq, Venezuela, Nigeria, Libya, and Iran have adversely affected crude oil supply, thus creating inelasticity in supply and demand balance for polymer raw material.

Product Insights

PVC was the dominant product segment and accounted for over 30% share of the overall medical plastic compounds market in 2015. PVC is a fixed, versatile or rigid material, widely used as the polymer in pre-sterilized single-use medical applications. Increasing demand for PVC in production of surgical gloves, disposables, pressure monitoring, feeding, and tubing for dialysis is anticipated to fuel growth over the forecast period.

In terms of revenue, polypropylene was valued at over USD 5 billion in 2015. It is widely used in heart valve structure, urinary catheters, and disposable syringes owing to high chemical and bacterial resistance.

Polycarbonate is expected to expand at a steady CAGR of 6.1% from 2016 to 2025. Polycarbonate exhibit superior properties, such as better inherent strength, optical clarity, dimensional stability, and high heat distortion temperature. Polystyrene is also utilized in healthcare industry to manufacture plastic boxes, cups, and vaginal dilator speculum.

Application Insights

The disposables segment was valued at over USD 10 billion in 2015. This segment accounted for a significant market share in terms of demand owing to increasing usage of sterilized and disposable syringes and gloves in healthcare sector of the countries, such as Germany, China, India, and U.K.

The catheters segment is expected to expand at a steady CAGR of 5.4% from 2016 to 2025 owing to growing utilization in medical industry wherein it finds a wide scope of application in angiography, cardiac electrophysiology, and angioplasty.

Polymers used for manufacturing implants are polyurethane, polyethylene, polycarbonate, Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), Polymethyl Methacrylate (PMMA), and fluoropolymers. Technological development such as CAM/CAD dentistry, which is mainly used in orthodontic applications, is anticipated to drive implants application segment growth.

Regional Insights

North America is expected to be the dominant region accounting for over 35% of the market in 2015. The regional market is driven by surging incidence of lifestyle diseases and government initiative on improving healthcare industry.

Increasing medical tourism especially in countries such as Germany, U.K., and France is anticipated to increase demand for devices. Growing home healthcare devices and self-medication in Europe is expected to propel industry growth over the forecast period.

Asia Pacific healthcare industry demand is expected to grow at an estimated CAGR of 5.8% from 2016 to 2025. To reduce the cost of hospital stay is expected to increase focus on homecare health devices and enhance the demand for diabetes control devices and dialysis kits.

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Segments Covered in the Report

This report forecasts volume and revenue growth at global, regional, and country levels and provides an analysis of the latest industry trends in each of the sub-segments from 2014 to 2025. For the purpose of this study, Grand View Research has segmented the global medical plastic compounds market report on the basis of product, application, and region: